Queensland’s Local Government Minister has brushed off concerns about the agency’s actions, which forced a rural newspaper to fight handing over journalists’ notes and recordings.
RAJA’S RULE
Decolonisation and revolution long ago removed royal families from power in most of Asia, leaving Japan’s emperors as the last hereditary monarchs of much significance to periodically exert some subtle influence.
But the past year has seen the region’s most abundant class of royals – the rajas and sultans of the old Malay dynasties – exert unexpected power over the country’s fragmenting political parties.
Nine of the Malaysian states are constitutionally headed by traditional Malay rulers who meet every five years to elect a king, or Yang di-Pertuan Agong, as the national head of state.
On Monday July 26, the Malaysian Parliament resumed sitting after the longest suspension since 1969 due to the COVID-19 crisis which had allowed Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to avoid testing whether he actually had a majority. But the prime minister was aiming to avoid any votes which would test his fragile majority.
The current Covid-19 pandemic has had an alarming impact on press freedom. Over the past 18 months, governments across the Asia–Pacific have – knowingly or not – used the health crisis to restrict the flow of information, stifling the press freedom that underpins societies and the rights of its citizens.
Last week, amid growing evidence of media suppression across the region, the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom launched the Press Freedom Tracker – a database that monitors incidents related to press freedom in the Asia–Pacific.
Incidents that stifle press freedom are classified into five categories: physical attacks against journalists and media workers; police actions (such as searches and arrests); government regulations and laws; court cases, legal actions and imprisonment; and other incidents that qualify as violations of press freedom (including incidents of online abuse, doxing and misinformation campaigns).
Olivia Pirie-Griffiths is Executive Director of the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom (AJF) – an organisation founded by Peter Greste, Chris Flynn and Peter Wilkinson after Greste’s release from prison in Egypt. The AJF works with Australian governments to ensure legislation supports media freedom. They also campaign in the Asia–Pacific when journalists are censored, threatened, imprisoned or killed. The Press Freedom Tracker (PFT) is a recently launched AJF project which tracks press freedom incidents in the Asia–Pacific. The purpose of the PFT is to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the regional challenges facing democracy, in order to build relationships and trust in the region.
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